It was a curious musical meeting at Koko last night. The headliner was Mulatu Astatke, the “King of Ethio-Jazz”, plus Brazil’s rising star Criolo. Mulatu is a smiling 70-year-old playing vibraphone (with four pink-tipped mallets) and Cuban percussion but is most important for his music and the extraordinary young band he’s assembled around him.

Mulatu’s compositions, with their distinctive Ethiopian scales, are great vehicles in which his musicians shine. Saxophonist James Arben plays solos that must leave the inside of his instrument molten, John Edward on double bass threatens to upstage everybody leaving no part of his instrument unplucked.

Criolo is a young Sao Paolo rapper and Brazil’s rising star, appearing briefly in Michael Palin’s Brazil documentary last week. His songs are about drugs and favela life and he suggested Brazilians in the audience should explain the lyrics. Criolo prowls around the stage like a pent-up lion and waves his arms a lot. He seems possessed. Rap is the music of choice around the world but it needs more musical qualities to bring it to an audience that doesn’t understand the lyrics. One lyric that was clearly understood was “Mulatu” elongated and celebrated like the world “gol” in Brazilian football commentaries.